Before you read, here's some fancy science words that you should know!

Organism: A plant or animal

Decay/Decompose: When an organism breaks down into tiny bits and fades away

Carbon: Material that is common in living things

Experiment: To test a hypothesis

Hypothesis: An answer you have to a question

Process: A course of action with an end result.

Preserve: To keep something in its original form

What is a fossil?

Fossils are leftovers or traces of animals and plants that you can see in the ground even after the plant or animal is dead for at least ten thousand years.

This old?

Fossils are very old.

No. Fossils are older.

This old?

Most fossils are older than Grandma.

Most fossils are even older than the first person.

Think back about 65 million years ago.

This dinosaur is a fossil.

Fossils can be found in places like:

Rock

Gravel

Mud/Dirt

Fossilization means the way in which a fossil is made. There are many different ways that a fossil can be made.

One way that a fossil can be made is called casts and molds.

What's That?

You'll understand in a second with the experiment on the next page.